MixBar
Every app has its own volume.
Your music louder, your browser quieter, your calls perfectly clear — all at the same time. MixBar sits in the menu bar and gives every running app a real volume slider, its own output and its own sound.
The volume keys only know one volume.
macOS gives you a single slider for everything playing on your Mac. Your music, your meetings, your notifications — all forced to share it. MixBar fixes that the way a real mixer does: one channel per app.
A real slider for every app
Music at 120%, notifications at 5%, the browser muted entirely — independent levels from silent to 200%, remembered across restarts.
Every app, its own output
Send Spotify to your AirPlay speakers while calls stay on your headset — and let MixBar switch devices automatically as they connect.
Shape the sound, per app
A 10-band EQ for each app plus the system, and a calibrated EQ for over 4,000 headphone models. Make anything sound the way you want.
A full mixing desk, living in your menu bar.
Per-app volume & mute
Independent levels for every running app, 0–200%, with independent mute. Levels are remembered, so your Mac restarts exactly as loud as you left it.
Output routing per app
Send any app to any connected output — headphones, speakers, an interface or AirPlay devices. Group outputs, and let priority devices switch automatically as they connect.
10-band EQ, per app & system
Shape each app's sound with its own 10-band equalizer, or EQ everything at once. Presets like Bass Boost and Voice are built in.
Headphone EQ, calibrated
Pick your headphones from a catalog of 4,000+ models and MixBar applies a measured correction curve, derived from the open-source AutoEq project.
Magic Boost, loudness & limiting
Rich, full sound from small speakers with Magic Boost. Normalize everything to a target loudness, and lock levels so nothing can blast your ears.
Auto-ducking on calls
The moment a meeting starts, music and background apps dip out of the way — and glide back when it ends. Works with the call apps you already use.
Lock-screen auto-mute
Lock your Mac and audio fades to silence — instantly, with no waiting for standby. Unlock and your levels come back exactly where they were.
Profiles & Focus Mode
Save levels and routing as named profiles — Work, Calls, Movies. They follow your macOS Focus, so switching modes re-configures your sound with you.
Hotkeys, fader & MIDI
Adjust the frontmost app without leaving the keyboard, summon a big on-screen fader, or bind any slider to your MIDI controller or Stream Deck.
Meters, balance & solo
Live level meters with proper peak zones, per-app stereo balance, solo, mono downmix, app grouping — the small things a real mixer is made of.
Native, sandboxed, and quietly out of the way.
MixBar is written in Swift on top of Apple's public audio APIs — the same per-app audio technology Apple built for macOS. No kernel extensions, no virtual audio drivers, nothing to restart for. It runs inside the App Sandbox and never phones home: no analytics, no accounts, no tracking.
The menu bar icon shows you at a glance which apps are playing, and the panel opens in one click — a floating window of glass that feels like part of the OS.
One-time purchase. No subscription.
Try everything free for 7 days. If MixBar earns its place in your menu bar, unlock it once and it's yours — on every Mac signed in to your Apple Account.
- 7-day free trial with every feature enabled
- No subscription, ever
- After the trial, per-app volume control pauses until you unlock; your profiles and settings are preserved
- Family sharing on the same Apple Account
A Mac, nothing else.
- macOS 14.2 Sonoma or later — including the newest versions
- Apple silicon and Intel Macs
- Any speakers or headphones you already own
- One-time permission to adjust system audio, granted during setup
MixBar appears in your menu bar after install and is ready in under a minute — the setup is three clicks and one permission.
Frequently asked
Is MixBar a subscription?
No. The trial is free for 7 days and the full unlock is a single one-time purchase of $14.99. There is nothing to cancel and no recurring charge.
Does MixBar record or transmit my audio?
Never. MixBar taps each app's audio output through Apple's public API to adjust its level in real time, and plays it straight back to your speakers. Audio is not written to disk, not analyzed, and not transmitted anywhere. The app has no analytics, no accounts and runs inside Apple's App Sandbox.
How is this different from the volume in Control Center?
The system volume is one slider for everything. MixBar gives every app its own level, its own output device, its own EQ — plus automation like auto-ducking on calls and lock-screen mute that the system simply doesn't have.
Does it work with Bluetooth headphones and AirPlay?
Yes. Any output macOS knows, MixBar can route an app to — including AirPlay devices on your network. Priority devices can switch automatically: plug in your headset and the apps you chose follow it.
Will it slow my Mac down?
MixBar is a native Swift app built on Apple's own per-app audio API. No kernel extensions, no virtual drivers, no background helper processes. The audio work is tiny and constant, independent of what you play through it.
What happens when the free trial ends?
Per-app volume control pauses until you purchase the unlock. Everything you configured — profiles, EQ curves, routing rules — is preserved and returns the moment you unlock. Guideline-honest details are in the terms and on the support page.
Where do the headphone EQ profiles come from?
From AutoEq, an open-source project (MIT-licensed) that measures headphones and derives correction curves. MixBar ships with 4,000+ ready-made calibrations and its license is credited inside the app.